Indie music has increased in popularity over years in part to greater access to bands like Gotye, Fun, and Arcade Fire through media.

Part of the reason is the internet: music is more accessible than ever before.

English teacher and guitar club sponsor Patrick Funk said, “When I was growing up, if I wanted to find an album by some band that not a lot of people knew about, I really had to dig around to find it. Now anyone in the middle of nowhere with the internet pretty much has access to all the music ever made.”

Indie music has started to become its own genre. Before, Indie was just independent music, or music that could nt be placed in a single genre and stayed away from big record labels. Now, Indie means a band that has a style that does not fit into a single genre. It doesn’t mateer if they are underground or not.

Many genres popular today started outside the mainstream.

When rock first started it was not widely popular and many held negative views of it. Now, Rock is one of the most sucessful and listened to genres in the world.

People often have mixed definitions of Indie music. Senior Haley Willingham said, “Indie is just unique music. It’s sort of like a mix of other genres.”

This helps show that indie is becoming its own genre. Many one time “independent” bands have achieved widespread popularity. Some wonder if a band can stay Indie even by today’s definition.

Sophomore Charlie Moorer said, “Indie is pretty much alternative rock Also, alot of things that get called Indie are just pop music.”

Many Bands start off like the original Indei. They have a small fan base and a unique sound. As the bands start to achieve popularity, they often change their music in order to achieve a wider fan base or to just make a ton of money. Many fans consider this to be “selling out”.

Many people feel this way about Green day. When they first started, Green Day was an underforund punk band with a fairly decent following. They were independent in the original sense. Then at on point they just blew up

Many of their former fans felt their music was starting to take a pop-rock direction and claimed they were “selling out”.

Unlike Green Day, Radiohead has stayed true to the newer difinition of Inde in the sense they have kept their unique sound. Many of their fans have been fans for a long time, even when they became widely known. They are considered by most of their old and new fans to have stayed true to their own unique sound.

A band can remain Indie by the new definition, even after achieving popularity but this is relatively rare. Many Indie bands lose their original fan bas because they believe they have sold out.

So is t0day’s Indie just the next rock and roll?

Twenty to thirty years from now it is possible there will be a new name for it and it will be just another poular genre. There will always be indie bands in the original Independent sense, but eventually new genres will be made for them to fit into.